| In the street outside Shepheard's Hotel,
Emerson feels a note being slipped into his pocket, "Stay away
from tomb Twenty-A."
As they settle into Luxor for the season,
"another pair of confounded lovers" vye for Amelia's
attention. Actually it is a previously known pair of lovers,
Enid and Donald Fraser from Lion in the Valley. Enid appeals
to Amelia to help her disengage Donald from an entanglement with a
spiritualist, Mrs. Jones. But Donald seems very reluctant to
give up his quest for Princess Tasherit and even Mrs. Jones is
feeling that the whole thing has gone too far.
Cyrus Vandergelt joins them in the Valley of
the Kings and of course there is another body.
David, Ramses and Nefret are growing up and
Bastet has gone to chase that last mouse in the sky. There is a new
cat, Sekhmet, but it is too simpering for Ramses' taste.
Amelia plots, the teenagers seek adventure,
the spiritualist hold seances and the murderer lurks somewhere in
the background.
This book is about the growing up of Ramses,
David and Nefret, and the themes of Ramses's unrequited love, and
David's dual loyalties to Egypt and the Emerson's.
The recurring character of Catherine
"Cat" Jones is introduced in this book, and another
narrative point of view is introduced through the diaries of
"H".
This narrative device will be used in most of
the following books so that the story can be carried forward without
the full knowledge of Amelia. It goes without saying that
Emerson is so busy trying to clear away the interferences to his
archaeological work that he never has the full story. But he hides
his surprise well under the veiled lids of his incredibly
handsome eyes. |
